


Artemis & Actaeon

by aetataureate



Category: Justified
Genre: F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 01:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21245342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aetataureate/pseuds/aetataureate
Summary: Bowman took Ava out deer hunting because her daddy was dead and well, someone had to.





	Artemis & Actaeon

Bowman took Ava out deer hunting because her daddy was dead and well, someone had to.

They were out in the cold well past the end of season, school just out for Christmas and a first early snow spread thin across the ground. The wood-board walls of the box stand cut some of the wind, but Ava’s nose was painfully pink and even Bowman, furnace of a boy that he was, had submitted to the necessity of a scarf and a hat.

It was day three and they’d hardly seen a deer, much less shot one. This was because days one and two had been primarily dedicated to making out on the floor of the stand. Bowman had been a perfect gentleman, except when he wasn’t, and Ava had kept his hands politely on the outside of her coat, except when she didn’t. But now the first snow had fallen and the cold had broken over them, so they were hunting deer.

There were no deer in sight. Bowman was eating sunflower seeds and courteously spitting the shells off to the side. Ava looked at the loose pile they formed and reflected on the benefits of marrying him.

First, he was the big football star. This was the original benefit, from which all other benefits flowed. He was big and warm-bodied and strong. He was very confident and popular, which made her friends, who were dating second-string left tackles and soccer players with prescription glasses, very jealous. When Bowman’s ship came in, it was going to carry him far away from Harlan, first to the SEC and then the NFL, and Ava with him. He was almost certainly going to sign his contract next semester, his last. After last year when Raylan Givens and his pretty mouth and hands busted Dickie Bennett’s knee and came up hollering, right in front of the scout, Bowman was the obvious next-best choice.

Ava had dodged a bullet with Raylan Givens. The mines were going to eat him and his dreams alive, if Bowman’s creepy brother didn’t do it first. Besides, she wasn’t sure she wanted a man who solved his problems with a bat.

Next to her, Bowman shifted and spat. He wasn’t dipping because she didn’t like it, which she thought was sweet. Word had it his ship would be in by February. They had thought it would be the fall but it wasn’t. Nagging shoulder injury, Bowman said, but he seemed to be moving fine most of the time so it should be soon. This was why he was so itchy-restless. She was glad she could get him outside, divert some of that energy. She wondered whether it would be better for them if she finished her senior year, or just followed him out to college direct.

She wondered if she should take her mother’s advice and just get pregnant now.

“Right there,” Bowman said, and Ava looked up. A doe had wandered out through the trees, tiptoeing across the virgin snow.

“She’s pretty,” Ava said. The doe had a delicate nose and eyes to die for.

“Shh,” Bowman said, hoisting the rifle up to his shoulder. “Right through the spine, watch this.”

Ava held her breath while Bowman sighted down the barrel. Something cracked like ice deep in the woods, and the doe turned her head just as Bowman fired. The doe jerked, a spray of blood erupting from her neck, and she bucked up, panicked.

“Fuck,” Bowman muttered.

The doe started to run, her gait drunken, staggering. She left a trail of blood behind her, wide like a tire track, and hit two trees before Ava lost sight of her.

“Damn, she shouldn’t have moved like that,” Bowman said. Ava looked over at him, mouth hidden behind her hands. His face was impassive.

“Oh my god,” Ava said.

“Hold this and hand it down to me,” Bowman told her, and he passed her the deer rifle. Then he swung around and started down the ladder of the box stand.

“Where are you going?” Ava asked, voice high and tight. The woods around them didn’t seem peaceful, but full of all manner of the dead and dying.

“I got to go get her, don’t I?” Bowman said, annoyed. He hopped down a couple of rungs from the bottom. “Now hand me the— shit.” He froze, right there at the base of the tree. Ava peeked out in the direction he was looking.

A buck had appeared from the same direction as the doe. He was enormous, handsome—looked like a twelve-pointer. He was so improbable that Ava wondered if the other deer had sent him to investigate.

“Hand me the rifle, Ava,” Bowman whispered, reaching up, and the buck looked sharply in his direction. Bowman froze again, and after a moment the buck relaxed, ears still on a swivel.

Ava levered the bolt back and then forward, just like they had practiced with the tin cans on the fencepost. The buck looked, then relaxed.

“Ava,” Bowman breathed as she hoisted the rifle to her shoulder. It felt huge in her hands, but the buck was huge in her sights. He was broadside to her, nibbling at some piece of brush, and she focused on the tiny spot behind the crease of his foreleg. She pictured the heart and lungs working behind that.

“Ava,” Bowman hissed. The buck looked up but her bullet hit true. He barely twitched before he dropped, stone-cold dead.

“Ava!” Bowman whooped. “Damn, girl, shit! What do you think you’re doing?”

“Shootin’ deer,” Ava said. And damn if it didn’t feel good.

**Author's Note:**

> *rolls up to the Justified fandom somewhere between four and nine years late with Starbucks*
> 
> questions, comments, and kudos are always appreciated, and my up-to-date contact information is in my profile if anyone wants to talk about this godforsaken show!


End file.
